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This is a Good Book Thursday, January 2, 2024

Okay, it’s a new year, time to start fresh. Is there anything that would make GBT better? I know, don’t mess with success, but if there’s some way this weekly chat could be improved, please discuss in the comments.

Oh, and what did you read this week?

190 Responses

  1. I think it is just perfect! I am still reading slowly through Margery Allingham’s oeuvre. I have now met the lovely and resourceful Amanda!

  2. Happy new year and best to you all in 2025!

    Jenny, I’d still love a way to get notifications when a thread I’ve posted in gets a comment instead of having to come back and scroll regularly. I know you’ve had problems with this before when people have OOO on their email but would love to find a solution – perhaps some techier person than I would know?

    As for reading this week…I read A Winter Romance, a collection of Christmas themed codicils by Josh Lanyon to her various works, quite enjoyable.

    The other Christmas themed novella was Cruel Winter With You by Ali Hazelwood. I have two diametrically opposed things to say: 1) this was a well crafted, fun romance, and 2) this is the kind of book that makes me shy away from M/F romances. The female MC has panic attacks, and despite being a pediatrics doctor is clueless about being pursued by the male M/C and has apparently never heard of the stock market. Nothing wrong with that EXCEPT our stalwart male M/C is smart, rich, funny, charming, handsome …in other words, practically perfect in every way. Why oh why does a female or any author write MC’s in romance like this? This is why I mostly read MM romances or spend half my time wishing Bob and Jenny could be injected with some kind of write-faster than human nature potion since apparently only they know how to write women as grown-ups. Mutter, mutter.

    I also read a book about Henry VIII’s 4th wife, Anne of Cleves by Heather Darsie. I know much more about Henry and his other wives other than Anne as an historical footnote so was quite interested in reading this very academic and thoroughly researched book. It was a little dry but two things stood out – it’s the first time it twigged for me that Henry was likely a sociopath, not just a self-indulgent and spoiled ruler typical for his times. The other thing was the bill passed by Parliament called the Act Against Strangers, which ruled that all foreigners living in England either had to become English or work for Englishmen. History, it’s a repeating cycle.

    1. It truly is.

      And a swinging pendulum. Society experiences an issue, overcorrects, then then freaks out at the way that turns out and overcorrects in the other direction.

      We appear to be unable to learn from history.

    2. Why don’t you ask your questions about disturbing tropes on the offending author’s blog instead of here? Or send them to her publisher? We’ll give you lots of sympathy, but it won’t change anything. Since Ali Hazelwood came up from writing fan fiction, it is very possible that her editor thinks they shouldn’t comment about an existing fanbase and therefore never raises the issue. I’m not saying that your comment will immediately change the industry, but there is no chance that your concerns will be heard if you don’t at least try to raise them with the people making money off of the works in question.

      1. For me, I feel like unsolicited advice of a finished work is rude. I have received a lot of it at art shows and it’s never been a helpful or productive situation. I agree that we are probably not the fan base that Hazelwood is trying to reach and her readers are probably quite happy with her work. It would be different if it were a work in progress and the author was asking for feedback.

        1. Yes, I’m always happy to give feedback when asked – Chacha1 asks all the time! And Guy Gavriel Kay who is mentioned on this blog and was the bestie of my boyfriend asked me for feedback after the Fionvar Tapestry and I said his women characters were weak and he strengthened them up. Love that. I’ve actually read most of Ali Hazelwood’s stuff and only the last few, with the exception of Bride, have been gearing this way. And really my issue is not with her but with FM romances in general. I don’t mind gorgeous, smart, successful male MC’s – but I do mind when they are perfect and have omnipotent perspective about the female MC who has ‘issues’. Women are not clueless, neurotic creatures who wait around to be pursued by some hunky idealized object. This is not my brand of feminism. The best feedback I can give in these situations is to simply stop paying to read these kinds of books. And hence, my movement in the past five years to MM romances.

          1. It’s like the 90s and 2000s movie and TV romcoms where the absolutely gorgeous female lead is dubbed as “clumsy” to make her “approachable.” Shorthand and stereotypes get so funny.

          2. “Women are not clueless, neurotic creatures who wait around to be pursued by some hunky idealized object. This is not my brand of feminism. The best feedback I can give in these situations is to simply stop paying to read these kinds of books.”

            Yes. 8/10 F/M romances I’ve read in the past 10 years have pissed me off by centering an alleged adult who, based on her behavior in the book, is emotionally 12 years old and largely ignorant of the way the actual world functions.

            Maybe contemporary F/M romance readers in general, the ones who keep the category alive, actually want a heroine who makes *them* feel accomplished, competent, successful, intelligent, whatever in comparison.

            I prefer a heroine whose failures are not presented as cute or funny but as problems that she recognizes and is trying to correct.

          3. Oh, what an interesting point. I never thought about it that way, sort of like dressing your bridesmaids in ugly dresses on purpose… Sigh. We have a long way to go yet, don’t we?

          5. LOL, the last two m/f romances I have read featured MMCs who were so flawed as to make me doubt the HEA. In both cases their tendency to run away from conflict was not adequately addressed by the end. The FMCs were one of each competent and not. I graded both 3 stars. The MMC before those was a judgemental worrywort (3*), the one before both MCs were workaholics, otherwise pretty appealing (3*), and the MMCbefore that was pretty much perfect with an FMC who was a mess and that novella was four stars for me.

            It takes all sorts and I’m glad there’s such a wide variety of books out there. I wonder though if the perfect hero stories are more generally popular as it’s a bit of a wish fulfillment like the HEA. And if they’re commercially successful then …

        2. Lupe, In my opinion, the mere fact that something has been published does not make it rude to point out flaws in it. Even if it’s traditionally published: particularly these days, publishers may well publish something knowing full well it’s flawed, but figuring it will sell as is and lacking staff levels spend the time and effort to negotiate with the author to make it better.

          I don’t think it particularly probable that an author will take action based on one such suggestion for change, since after all tastes differ. But the author just might decide that the complaint is justified, once they think about it, or they might respond to many criticisms on the same grounds. (Or not, depending on various factors.) And in the particular case of Hazelwood, I’m not convinced that she consistently falls into the stereotype that Tammy complains of. But I think Tammy is entitled to complain if she wants to.

          1. This was written while Tammy was posting her 6:16 comments, making many of the same points.

          2. Ah well, we are going to have to agree to disagree on this point, I am afraid. Maybe it’s a generational thing. As a child of the burgeoning internet age where trolls are prevalent on social media, criticism often reaches past the point where it is appropriate. In the groups I belong to the cultural norm if you don’t like something is to remove yourself quietly.

        3. I agree with Lupe and Tammy about the criticism. Stories imho are not something like a scientific paoer. Like other forms of art, ghe creators are more sensitive towards their babies. Citicism CAN hurt a lot. And I’m pretty sure publishers are only/mainly interested in sales so why should they push less annoying characterizations if those stories are bestselling?
          Like Tammy, I’ve trouble relating to the majority of current FM stories, so switched to mainly MM.
          Clumsy, I get. Competent on paper but not in action, fumbling idiots? No. Or worse: arrogant selfindulgent b…tches I’m asked to adore – no way!

          1. Oh! And I really hate when either character has decided to Never Get Married Or Be in a Committed Relationship because their parents had a bad marriage/nasty divorce. Umm, what?

          4. I’m not sure, Tammy. I probably typed my email address in wrong. It doesn’t hold it, when I am posting from work. Shhh. Busy here today.

          6. I actually know people of my generation who have decided not to marry legally because of all the divorce in their families. But they’re in committed relationships.

        4. Tammy, you do realise that now all of us at Argh have gone and bought/borrowed Cruel Winter to make up our mind about it.

          I quite like Ali Hazelwood and I have read most of her stuff but I think you have articulated really well what I find annoying about her male/female dynamic.

          I do like the STEM setting a lot though and the female friendships within. It’s probably why I wasn’t so keen on the chess one or Bride.

          I haven’t given up on F/M totally because I like a good heterosexual romance when I can find one.

          1. Hey I’m happy to contribute to a productive dialogue about what makes a romance readable! Even if it means people reading the book to develop their own pov.

            And yes I enjoyed her STEM ones better, maybe her heroines felt stronger on that familiar ground? I avoided the chess one due to the reviews here.

          2. It is lovely isn’t it to see the genre dissected here, in all its various aspects and in all seriousness.

            I really treasure also how nice people are to each other even when they disagree.

          3. LN, it is absolutely my favourite part about this blog. I think at this point we could all agree to stop discussing books and talk about…engine parts…or something and I would happily go along with it. The book part is just the bonus now.

      2. Have to disagree with ChaCha1 in this statement: “Maybe contemporary F/M romance readers in general, the ones who keep the category alive, actually want a heroine who makes *them* feel accomplished, competent, successful, intelligent, whatever in comparison.”

        I think you’re really underestimating women there. I read those books & not because I want to feel good in comparison to a TSTL female. Rather for that moment when I find a female heroine that I admire & somewhat relate to.

        Also – silly as it is – I often like the smart but clumsy heroine because I can definitely relate. It has been done too often, sure, but I still like it.

        Not ready to give up on f/m romances yet. Where would that leave us hetero people?

        1. It’s not that I mind a female with issues. I just want the male to have some of his own too instead of slyly dominating the heroine with his superior perfection. And as a straight female, I haven’t completely deserted the genre but I am very, very picky about it. I want a heroine for example who picks the male MC’s pocket the first time she meets him to get to know him better.

        2. Oh, I don’t mind a clumsy heroine at all. CM Nascosta writes messy, flawed heroines all the time, in the most relatable way. What I mind is that it became shorthand for the reason why a smart, gorgeous, blond size two was hopelessly single. It was the standard flaw for making her ‘approachable’ without having to write her any emotional depth. Like putting glasses on a gorgeous actress in the 1950s. Of course she’s single. She wears glasses…

          1. Is it just me, the glasses wearing female: I find e.g. superman in his Clark Kent persona WITH glasses more attractive than without?
            It sort of depends on the glasses, and the human being wearing them, but very often the glasses highlight the attractiveness and do not detract from it.
            Maybe glasses make the wearer seem more intelligent?
            Same with picture of esp men reading books 😉

            On some plattforms (can’t remember which, probably insta or pinterest) there are even collections of such book-reading-male-specimen lol.

          2. My husband has had to start wearing reading glasses some of the time and I make sexy librarian jokes to him. Not sure he is amused, but I certainly am 😉

        3. I’m sure I’ve missed out on *many* excellent F/M romances in which the MCs are true equals and the FMCs are fully competent, owing to my bias … accumulated over 40+ years of reading romance. 🙂

          I’m still shaking my head at recent reads like the one in which a woman I’m supposed to believe is smart & capable drives alone to a destination she’s never visited in a car low on fuel with a phone that’s uncharged.

          1. The one that I still can’t get over, and I can’t even remember the title I dnfed it so fast, had the main character falling so spectacularly in the opening scene that she flashed her whole work place and was doubly embarrassed that they were plain underpants, not sexy ones… First, I have never fallen that acrobatically. I just go down on my face. Second, I don’t think that I would be embarrassed about something I did by accident and third, wtf?

            But I still love some traditional m/f authors. Jenny, of course. And Trisha Ashley. Nalini Singh still hits the comfort reread list from time to time. Heyer and Mary Stewart forever. But I do tend to be leery of new authors. Coleen Hoover is popular in my workplace and I SIMPLY CANNOT.

          4. It wasn’t Bridget Jones, although that may have well happened to her too. I watched the first movie of hers and never felt the need to try the books.

          6. Lupe and all – I want to make a pitch for Deborah Blake’s books – Baba Yaga & Broken Rider series. I just read them all & not once did I say to the females actions – no don’t do that – which I frequently say & yell at the television.

            Smart, competent females all.

    3. I think that in all of the Hazelwood that I’ve read (which do not include this one) the male is older (sometimes a little, sometimes by 10 years or so), substantially taller, physically fit, and handsome. I presume that that springs from the author’s psyche one way or another. But sometimes they serious psychological or character problems (naturally, solved or at least mitigated by the end). I think a lot of that comes with the romance genre territory. And consider that Hazelwood almost always writes from a female viewpoint and that each sex tends to idealize the people we’re in love with.

      2. I just started Cruel Winter and there the hero is over 2 years younger than the heroine, contrary to the pattern I noted above. Other parameters fit so far, however.

  3. There is no need for improvement in my eyes, why mess with something that is already spot on? But that’s me for you lol. I’ve just finished yours and Bob’s extremely good ‘Very Nice Funerals’ ready in advance for ‘The Honey Pot Plot, every chance I’ll read them again before it’s released, do like books to flow as smoothly as possible, but now onto a witchy cosy mystery by KE O’Connor; quite light hearted reads, but love the witchy side, and I love a good whodunnit, rather like her short novels, have read quite a few now, besides, it has a mystical fluffy white cat, and I love cats, and in particular, fluffy white ones like my childhood pet Snowy – in my defence I was only 3 yrs old when I named her lol. after this one, well there’s a nother KE O’Connor due out in the next few weeks, but still have Shari LaPena’s new novel to read – she also tends to lean towards the ‘whodunnit’ and also one by Ali Harper – ‘The Runaway’ which my best friend bought me for Christmas, so I have quite a few piling up, still have to get the new Paula Hawkins as well…..books, books, so many books, so little time…..lol

    And Happy New Year to you Jennifer, hopefully 2025 will be good for all of us who follow you, and of course to you, Bob and all your friends and family, human and furry…x

  4. I’m reading the new Ally Carter, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, and loving it. It’s a romance and a mystery romp, with two very different mystery authors who end up at the remote castle of the most famous mystery writer of all time. Their hostess has disappeared from a locked room. There are other guests, things happen. It’s fab. A great escapism book, which is just what I wanted.

    Finished reading an advance copy of Nan Reinhardt’s Made to Love You. Charming romance and there’s a cute dog! Highly recommended.

      1. I just finished it this morning, and the ending held up really well. This may be a challenge to beat as favorite book of 2025 (except the Crusie/Mayer books, of course). Just loved it.

    2. Yes whoever recommended this originally it was very enjoyable!

      And has a very strong female lead and a male who doesn’t diminish her accomplishments

      Happy new year all!

    4. I’ve got the new Ally Carter on hold at the library but it’s taking quite a while to get to me. Glad to hear it’s good – The Blonde Identity was one of my favourites last year.

      1. A couple of years ago I put on hold in many libraries that are within the network the book Lessons in Chemistry and left it in even after I already read the book. That was to see how long a wait it would be. Then I forgot about it until yesterday when I put a book on hold and just out of curiosity checked the holds and I’m now number 84 in line for the Bonnie Garmus book. That doesn’t mean that you will have that long a wait it’s just me being me.

  5. I have two Christmas books to recommend. The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter (Blonde Identity) was cute, had a well plotted country house party mystery with a well described Christmassy setting, and a bit of romance. My reservation about it is that the FMC was petulant and surly (and kinda annoying to me) for the first third of the book. To be fair she had a very traumatic backstory and most of her truculence was in her own head. The book had good pacing and a judicial revealing of both the FMC and MMC backstories. This is definitely a good escape read.

    But Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey will be a Christmas re-read every year! The setting is very Christmassy—an upscale NYC department store during the holiday season. The FMC has been hired to dress the store’s windows shortly after being let out of prison so she’s very eager to prove herself. Two things make it stand out. First, the MMC is an optimistic country guy who requires his employees to be kind but who turns into a Dirty Boy in bed. The author makes this contrast so amusing, and the story is quite spicy because of it. Second, when it’s obvious that the Big Misunderstanding is coming up the FMC uses her words to diffuse it! Plus she has another big conflict with someone from her past and again uses her words to set boundaries. This was so refreshing! I’ve not read any other Tessa Bailey books but I intend to seek her out now. This book is now on my Annual Christmas Re-Read List! (It’s a well-done audiobook on Chirp for $3.99. The audiobook highlights the corn pone country accent of the MMC which makes him sound like such an innocent. Until he gets into bed. Ha!)

  6. Happy 2025! Like Tammy, I think it would be nice to see if someone comments on my post but if it’s too much trouble forget it. I can come back and check as usual.

    After I DNF’d The Measure, I was beginning to worry because there’s a lot of books like it that are so popular and I can’t see the appeal. Is it just me?

    So I re-read several novellas by favorite authors including Linda Howard and Anne Stuart. Then I re-read Jenny’s Trust Me on This. Such a clever book! For research, I’ve been reading a non-fiction book, Soldier Dogs by Maria Goodavage.

    I bought a copy of Brat Farrar after hearing about it here on GBT and I’m thinking that might be my next new to me fiction read.

      1. Me too:-). It’s been years since I read it. I bought it on audible. Excellent reader.

  7. I love GBT and no improvements come to mind, other than I hope that I will be a more adventurous reader this year so that I have more to discuss. But that is all on my end.

    My hold on A Nightmare before Kissmas came in and I am just at the 50 percent mark, but am very impressed by it. Thanks so much to whoever recommended it! The stakes are feeling pretty dire and I really like the characters. It’s a more serious book than the title and cover suggested to me with some pretty significant family trauma, but not in a dark, depressing way and I am seeing myself echoed in Cole’s distaste for modern Christmas. The tension is ramping up, so I am hopeful for a very satisfying ending.

    2. I’m glad you like Kissmas so far. If you still like it by the end, there’s supposed to be another one in the same universe coming out in March.

      1. Gaaaaahh. Spoilers follow…

        I got to the part where Santa finds out about the coup on my lunch break and had to stop. The wait is killing me. Also, the family trauma is so good that I find it a little triggering, but the characters are handling it so well!

  8. GBT works for me as is, though if Tammy’s suggestion is workable that would be nice.

    This week reread Josh Lanyon’s The Lemondrop Kid and enjoyed it even more than I did the first time. I think I read it too quickly the first time and missed some of the “feels” I got this time.

    I also read The Reluctant Coroner by Paul Austin Ardoin – a fun start to a series about a woman who becomes a temporary coroner to replace the previous coroner who was murdered. The violations of procedure which usually cause me to DNF a book, are plausible here because of the coroner’s inexperience and total lack of background in the matter. She’ll have to get better at procedure in future stories in the series as she learns her job, but she gets a pass for this first one. There is a romance but I think it is going to be a slow arc. I will continue with this series. Thank you to the Argher who recommended this one.

    I also read the Gregory Ashe/C.S. Poe “A Friend in the Dark” – an interesting M/M story of two guys investigating and falling in love. The protagonists are a police informant and a former military man. Both are damaged but are able to cooperate and conduct a convincing investigation. Very glad I read this one. It does end with a cliff hanger (sort of) which I normally hate but I am looking forward to continuing with these MMCs. Tammy, thanks for the rec!

    1. It looks like The Reluctant Coroner is free on kindle today. I went to buy it. Turns out I bought it 4 years ago and is in my ever growing pile of ebooks that that are still waiting to be read.

      1. I intended to download Reluctant Coroner, but it seems that already had, on 26 December, I hope when it also was free.

    2. I do have some questions about the differences between a coroner, a medical examiner, and a police detective or investigator and how those roles overlap in this series but I like all the characters enough that I’m willing to suspend disbelief!

  10. As I said on the books of the year post, I’ve been reading The Undiagnosable (free from AO3): first Two Truths, then Dire Straits and Got It Made – all good, first probably my favourite. I also read the first three of Ripley Hayes’ DS Charlie Rees series, starting with the novella Murder in Shades of Yellow. Enjoyable, but not sure I’ll bother with the last one – the romance arc seems complete already. I don’t find them wholly convincing, though the characters & community are attractive. I like the fact they’re set near me, in North Wales, although the geography’s rather mangled.

    1. Thanks for the titles of Undiagnosable’s other titles, Jane! I fear she’s taken down most, at least my search of her(?) name yielded no other work, but I’ve saved some titles in the past.

        1. Yuri, thanks so much – I’m a member, but really bad in navigating the archive. Will check out the stories as soon as I’m back at my laptop.

          2. I am now very confused as to why they’re not coming up for you, if you’re logged in 🙁

            I’d offer to be A03 IT support – but I’d need plane tickets 😉

          3. Yuri, a personal IT would be lovely, lol.
            It might be too embarassing to bring you over if the reason is my stupid lacking IT knowledge 😉

            I’ll try again today (too busy yesterday with a b’d outing including brunch and going to see Conclave). Today, a lovely ex colleague of hubby comes over with his husband, so I have to urge my men to help prepare.

            An afterthought: from where would I cart you to Munich? From the US or somewhere closer?
            The Arghers are such great international crowd 😀

          4. I’m in Aus – and I might get to Germany sometime next year – haven’t been back since Uni. I’ve lost all my German – my Goethe Institut teachers would be appalled!

            And seriously I’m terrible with IT myself – but somehow its easier with other people’s problems. I was at dinner with at a friend’s house and I was so chuffed when I could fix her iphone when I can’t figure out my own!

          6. Yuri, if you come to Gefmany and your plans include the South, text me! It’d be fun to show you around 😀
            Re the Conclave: I was hooked nmby hhe book when I read it during Lockdown. For the film, hhey had to simplify lot, but managed to so so well. But honestly, with such a cast – Firnnes, Tucci, Rossellini, Linlithgow – it’d have been difficult to miss. The feeling of joyless, colourless manhood was strong!
            And the rnding more hopeful than thd real next conclave promises to be.
            Faaaaar better than Nosferatu – all three of us 1 hr after the start. Even the teenagef wanted out.
            Pretentious cr*p. And all vmcritics seem to love it. Head scratches… A case of the Emperor’s new clothes?!!!

      3. Dodo, this should be a link to her author page: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theundiagnosable/pseuds/theundiagnosable

        It took a bit of rummaging – you have to get the spelling exactly right (theundiagnosable) and then click on that name in one of the search results to get to the author page. This time I also had to use their advanced search and make sure the name was in the author field (my first, simple search, brought up no matches – but I’d typed the name as two words).

        2. Jane and Yuri, once I got on my laptop and logged in, all worked out fine with theundiagnoseable’s stories. Thanks!!

  11. Much of my reading was on AO3 this week, and I won’t rec from there unless it was extra special. I did read a Harry Draco fanfic, a first for me, as I didn’t think I’d like fanfic if I knew the original world but it was fun to be back in it.

    As fanfic was previously a No from me and I liked it, I think maybe omegaverse might be worth a try, and see if I change my position on that too 🤔.

    Am currently enjoying AL Heard The Trade Season but only 50% in. Great to have a new hockey author with and lots of hockey detail.

    On audio I listened to Josh Lanyon ‘A case of Christmas ‘. It’s only about two hours but was nice, though clearly some plot details implied it might have been planned as something longer. Listened on Spotify as wouldn’t use an audible credit for something that short.

    Finally, there isn’t much I’d change about GBT but like Tammy and others I think notifications of comment responses would be good.

    1. If you’re becoming flexible about omegaverse and want something with a hockey crossover you could try Marina Vivancos’ hockey series.

      1. Thanks, I thought I would start with her, as the hockey setting would be a win from the start.

    2. I like a good Omegaverse, but then, I enjoy really problematic situations. And like everything else, it can be done well and it can be done poorly. I avoid it in M/F situations, but I like it in M/M.

      1. I’ll report back on how I get on! I’m usually ok with problematic situations (except if there’s violence).

  13. I have finished several enjoyable books in the last week, and I can’t think of a thing to say about them. (I hope it’s a good sign that I haven’t DNFd a thing.)

  14. GBT is my “go to ” for new things to read. I have a long copy paste notes page with everyone’s suggestions. I appreciate and love it! ( no names).

    I reread/listened Tell me lies by J. Crusie it took my day from dread to satisfaction. (realizing who potus is now).

    2. It’s a small thing, but I do enjoy the fact that Jimmy Carter’s passing will mean that the flags on government buildings will be at half mast for the 20th. Now, if only we could get them to hang upside down.

      3. My son’s take on the flag is “Jimmy Carter is a petty ***** and I’m here for it.”
        I don’t think he did it intentionally but I do like the results

      6. Lupe – I live in a 55+ mobile home park. Several of the DJT supporters have either drug their flags out or bought new ones. The personal ones for their individual trailer. And they are hanging NOT at half mass.
        Jerks!

  15. Jenny,

    If it’s possible to write-protect when filled in the grayed-out Name and Email fields (and, I presume, the Website one if used), that would solve some problems. If someone really wants to change an email address or something, they could still fill in a blank field.

  16. I reread Rocky Start, and got some laughs out of it. My favorite line is when Max is in the post office, and sees surveillance cameras, and a lethal gun behind the counter, and thinks to himself, “I hope my package isn’t postage due.”

    I read the sample of Brat Farrar, and did not latch onto it. The eponymous character did not show up in the sample!!! Odd.

    I reread Paladin’s Grace, and again enjoyed learning about perfumery, and loved the sock-knitting soldier, and the furry friend.

    On to the next.

    1. Jan Kindwoman – one of my favorite books regarding perfume is – The Book of Lost Fragrances by M J Rose. So good. I now have trouble reading her books because my focus is not what it was. But she is definitely a compelling, intriguing, author & I found that book amazing.

      Of course, if you want a funny book about perfumery – Tom Robbins book (not new) Jitterbug Perfume is amazing in entirely different ways lol.

  17. I’m also rereading Trust Me On This by this Crusie-woman I’m sure none of you are familiar with 😉 after having quoted the thing about failing yesterday. Almost done. Happy reread. <3 This woman is a fabulous writer. You should give her books a go!

    Just before newyears, I found a bunch of Deborah Blake's books over on Bookshare, an e-book library for people with reading disabilities. Currently reading Everyday Witch A to Z, and enjoying it a lot.

    Did a search on Wen Spencer again on Audible after a few years not having bothered and found they'd added a lot of her books. Have started on Tinker. Not really sure where it's going yet, but will pick it up again once I'm done with Trust Me On This.

    Sven and I finished the last book in Raymond E. Feist's books in the world of Midkemia on Newyear's eve: Magician's End. It's taken a bit more than 2 years. He was so sad to have to say goodbye to that world that we've now started on the "sub-series", two of which I myself haven't read yet either. First one I have though, a few times even, which is the Empire-trilogy, co-written with Janny Wurts and starting with "Daughter of the Empire". It's been a while since I read it, so it's gonna be a nice revisit. 🙂 And yeah no, technically it doesn't take place in Midkemia, of course, but close enough!

    1. Daughter is in the Midkemia-verse.

      I ugly cried at Magician’s End. Pug was my friend for a very long time.

      1. Yes I know it’s technically in the Midkemia-verse, but strictly speaking it’s on Kelewan. That’s what I meant.
        I also cried when I read Magician’s End. Feist is a great write, you really care about his characters. <3

  18. Still working my way through Bridgerton, despite being side-tracked by the snippets of the TV series I’ve been seeing. I’m on Hyacinth’s story. She’s smart, and daring and I’m liking her quite a bit.

  19. Blog suggestion: It might be nice to see who has liked a comment that one posts. It would be like a little hello without making a reply. (Though I have to admit I usually like every comment just because I’m impressed someone has taken the time to post something.)

  20. I started the third book in the Miss Percy’s Definitive Guide to the Restoration of Dragons, a series which I’ve enjoyed. This one is getting to me because of our heroine’s redundant internal rumination. A scene with five sentences take fives pages for her to think things we’ve heard her think many times before. I had to stop and take a break with Murderbot’s System Collapse. I’ll go back when I’m not so impatient from holiday tasks. This might have been a better book to read than listen to, it would allow scanning those paragraphs. However, I’m invested in the story and the characters, I like the dragons, and did enjoy the first two so much. Hopefully I’ll be in a more receptive state.

  21. I read two of four novellas in an anthology that I think is a DNF, plus a Susan Mallery romance. My problem with Mallery (this is my first time reading a book of hers) is no domesticated animals, no children, and not much humor. Spoiled much?

  22. I intended to get more than this written up, but it didn’t happen, so my backlog keeps growing. Possibly more later today.

    •Ali Hazelwood, Loathe to Love You, 2023.  A collection of three loosely related novellas published in 2022, plus a final bonus chapter.  It’s the old trope of getting a group of women friends each paired off with a suitable man, one friend per story.  The three works comprise the STEMinists series, consistent with Hazelwood’s specialty.  All of the heroines and two of the heroes indeed work in STEM jobs. In point of fact, however,  the STEM aspect is basically irrelevant to the first two novellas.  The first involves an engineer and a lawyer who, thanks to an inheritance, sentiment, and the nearby locations of their respective workplaces, end up sharing a house in DC, but starting out in a cold war with each other.  Being only one of several issues, the STEMish environmentalist–versus–Big Oil aspect could easily be swapped out for another friction point.  In the second novella, two engineers with previous history find themselves together stuck in an elevator.  Our heroine is again an environmentalist and our hero a more conventional resource-expending civil engineer, but the loosely related Big Misunderstanding keeping the two apart could easily trade places with another pretext.  In the third story, our heroine and hero both work for NASA, helping to design Mars rovers and to test them in the Arctic.  This one has a lot more STEM content, in terms of NASA’S hiring process, its workplace issues, and its culture, and of using hostile Earth environments as a weak stand-in for Mars.  To resolve the romance, our heroine needs to overcome her personality issues that perhaps do arise more commonly in character types attracted to the tech world, so even that aspect of the plot may have more STEM justification.  All three novellas could have benefited from more space to explore the engineering aspects of their settings.  Although I thought the last novella (“Below Zero”) was the best of them, I also thought that space constraints forced it to gloss over aspects that needed more expansion.  I enjoyed reading the three, but I thought them inferior to Hazelwood’s novels.  Therefore, good but not great.

  23. I’m reading Hello Stranger by Katherine Center right now. Overall I like it, but there’s a plot element about it that makes the love triangle weird. I actually got spoiled for it and I keep waiting around for that to be clarified. I also got annoyed at how the heroine’s best friend physically flakes the hell out a lot of the time, even if she’s available on the phone.

    I also read Voyage of the Damned by Frances White. This is a good fantasy version of And Then There Were None (same general premise of locked ship/people getting killed off) and the narrator is very endearing and the mystery is great, but the romance…well, there’s a twist and things get real dang weird, to the point where you’re all, “honestly, I’m glad you’re happy, but enough weirdness has gone on here that I have concerns about your relationship with this person.”

  24. The last book I read in 2024 was You, Again by Lauren Layne – a recommendation from GBT but sadly I can’t remember who to name check. Really enjoyed this book, it was the only one by this author in the library though so I am going to have to buy from the back catalogue if I want to read more. Can anyone recommend a good place to start?

    1. I loved Cuff Me by Lauren Layne. It’s actually #3 in the New York’s Finest series about 3 brothers who happen to be cops. I liked the first two but read #3 first–go figure–and loved it the best. The dialogue between the brothers and their cop father was so real I could hear it in my head. I also loved Emergency Contact. It’s a Christmas novella and the situations the divorced couple the MC get into forced together on a road trip were totally unrealistic but I loved it anyway.

      I will have to check out You Again. Thanks!

      1. I’d forgotten about Emergency Contact: I enjoyed that one too despite the fact that usually Planes, Trains and Automobiles type stories put me too on edge (having lived through a number of similar scenarios — none of them were fun or romantic…) But she pulled it off!

    2. Lauren Layne has a long backlist. I also enjoyed “You Again” and the “Cuff me” series that Carrie mentioned.
      My favorite of here are 3 different series: 1) 21 Wall Street. MCs all work on Wall Street. 2) Stiletto series and 3) Oxford series. These two series sort of intermingle (characters from one series make cameo appearances in the other). The Stiletto series is about writers who work for a Cosmo type magazine in Manhattan. Oxford series is about guys who work for a GQ type magazine in the same building.
      I am a big Lauren Layne fan and all these series are on my reread loop. There are more! There were two series that didn’t do it for me at all one was called Central Park Pact — I thought the premise was silly and the FMCs were quite unpleasant. The other series was called Wedding Belles — FMCs are owners of a wedding planning company — this one just struck me as sort of dull. Could have been my mood when I read them.
      Layne’s books all take place in Manhattan and have a glitzy feel to them. Very enjoyable and easy to read.

      1. Thank you Christina – will check these out. Also thanks for the not so greats – she has written a lot of books and I trust your judgement here.

    2. I miss Shoe. I don’t remember how old Jeff MacNelly was when he died, but whatever it was, he died too soon.

    3. Oh my gourd* – that is so funny. Have to share it with my – not a morning person children / grandchildren!

      *Gourd stolen from ChaCha1 & I will be using in unashamedly & often!

      1. It works so much better this time of year, when people are brangling about “Happy Holidays” versus “Merry Xmas” versus “Happy Hannukah” versus “Taking the Christ out of Christmas (by using the Greek X symbol).” It works anytime (before noon) but the Season’s Greetings angle adds secret sauce.

        1. You know, those trying to take out Christ from Christmas by using the X do exactly the opposite. Funny, this lack of knowledge.

  26. One more from me today:

    •Ali Hazelwood,  The Love Hypothesis (2021).  Hazelwood’s first professionally published fiction, although (as seems to be common with beginning novelists these days) she had long been posting fan fiction. Through an unlikely combination of circumstances, Stanford’s Canadian doctoral candidate Olive Smith finds herself fake-dating Professor Adam Carlsen (who fortunately is outside her supervisory chain, making it kosher by the ethics rules).  Each party has an incentive to continue the fake dating for a while.  In very broad terms, it’s a bit like Jenny’s The Cinderella Deal.  What always happens in this romance trope happens here too.  Moreover, it turns out that someone who Olive trusted implicitly proved unworthy,  a turn of events that Hazelwood will use in various ways in several novels (enough that by now I think that the author should give it a rest for a while).  With this untrustworthiness obstacle dealt with (in a dramatic fashion), true love can run its course. Throughout the novel, there’s a lot of interesting background on the career path in academic science and the problems that women face there, plus the usual snarky dialog. I was also reminded of how much higher a percentage of the students are international in American natural-science disciplines than in social sciences or humanities, which must make a difference for the grad school experience (even though we had a visible number of international students in my courses and I also saw the techie ones around in the dorm, etc.) I thought The Love Hypothesis was better than Hazelwood’s second book, Love on the Brain, which I reviewed earlier, and which, I gather, was her first big hit—and which I recommended despite its flaws.  So I recommend this one even more.

  27. I started reading “The Bookshop on the Corner” by Jenny Colgan. I have to say, her message to readers at the beginning of the book was delightfully amusing and persuaded me to start this book over the thousands of others vying for my attention.

  28. I can’t think of any way of improving GBT except for Tammy’s comment about notifications if anyone comments on your comment – but I know there are technical issues with that, and I can live without it. Otherwise it’s always a delight, and I have got SO MANY good books from it.

    Best read this week was Naomi Novik’s book of short stories Buried Deep. Boy can she write. And it was fun to dip back into the worlds of Scholomance and Temeraire, even if only briefly.

    I also enjoyed Holly Gramazio’s The Husbands, in which a man comes down from the attic and the protagonist discovers that he’s her husband. Whenever she sends a husband back up into the attic, a new one comes back down. It was funny and sweet, with a very satisfying end.

    I’m still reading my way through the St Mary’s books, and still impressed by how she handles an ensemble cast.

    1. The Husbands sounds like fun. I’ve put it on my wish list, waiting until it’s on sale. Luckily, I don’t feel any need to send my own husband to the attic.

    3. I’ve got one more story left in Buried Deep to finish and yes it is so good! Although now I want full length novels of most of these. I loved the Elizabeth/Darcy story, the Mark Antony story, Seven… Actually as I’m looking back on the table of contents they were all so amazing I’d almost have to list the whole TOC to list all my “favorites”.

      1. I agree, Eli. I don’t think there’s a dud story in the book. So unusual to find a collection of short stories where I love all of them.

  29. No suggestions. I love GBT the way it is. 😀
    Just finished Katrina Kwan’s Chinese-inspired romantic fantasy, THE LAST DRAGON OF THE EAST. It’s lovely on every level.
    Also powered through the opening salvos of Ashley Gardner’s new paranormal Regency-set mystery series, “A Matter of Honor” and “A Matter at New Year’s.” The stories are, respectively, short fiction and a novella, and both are currently reasonable on Amazon. I like what I’ve read so far and look forward to where she’s going to go with it.

  30. I enjoy this thread. I don’t think it needs improvement. Happy New Year, everyone!
    Now about books. I finally finished something new: Jayne Castle’s People in Glass Houses. I’m disappointed. It was an OK novel, I suppose, but I didn’t enjoy it much. I didn’t like it anywhere near as well as I do all the other novels in this futuristic romance series. The book seemed different from all the others: different story structure, different character dynamics, different dialog, different narrative. Even the vernacular isn’t the same. It gives the impression that it was written by some other writer, even though Jayne Castle’s name is still on the cover. I own all the other books in the series and re-read them occasionally, but I borrowed this one from the library, and I’m not going to buy it. I’m definitely not going to read it again.
    Then I read Shadows of the Past by Sharon Shinn. I enjoyed it. It is a collection of short stories, most of which had been published before in anthologies and magazines. All of them have at least some speculative fiction flavor. Three are murder mysteries. It was a quick and easy read.
    S.J. Wynde’s Cici and the Curator was a re-read of course. What a delightful book! I smiled the entire time I read it.

    3. Olga, People in Glass Houses was not the best for sure. Some of the older ones like Siren’s call are much better. Guild Boss is good too – though some of them seem to be published under JAK rather than Jayne Castle these days. I do enjoy the harmony series but finding them in the library under Jayne Castle is hit and miss.

    4. Olga, I agree wholeheartedly with you about Shadows of the Past by Sharon Shinn, and S J Wynde’s Cici and the Curator!

  31. Also, if anyone is reading this far, I finally finished Sharon Lynn Fisher’s GRIMM curiosities Dec. 30. It’s a holiday fantasy romance set in York between a curio shop owner and the local aristocrat’s son. There’s skullduggery, magical wardrobes, ghosts, and books. It’s like a warm holiday hug. I just wish RL had let me start it earlier, so I could have recommended it BEFORE the holiday madness started.

    1. I think it’s great the way it is. If I was going to add anything it would be an occasional theme —we just did best books of 2024 and themes pop up naturally anyway when people ask for advice but I can imagine a few times a year doing favorite regency, favorite mod Rom-com, favorite series, books we are looking forward to in 2025, that kind of thing. But rarely.

  32. I finished Michael Dalton’s BIKINI SUNSET: AN UNCONVENTIONAL ROMANCE (Bikini Days Book 4). It ended with “The story continues in Bikini Magic” Instead of being annoyed, I’m looking forward to Book 5.

    The Murderbot Diaries reread is in Book 7, NETWORK EFFECT. I expected to be done by now but kept getting interrupted. I’m at chapter 15.

    One of the interruptions was Frank Downey (writing as Don Lockwood) REWIND. It’s unfinished at 19 chapters. It is another Do-Over story. Guy lives to 43, dies, wakes up in his own body at age 12 with memories intact. Decides to change history by exercising and being outgoing instead of the fat nerd of his first life.

    Another interruption was the on-going word opera, Grey Wolf’s VARIATION ON A THEME, Book 6. If I haven’t described it before, It is another Do-Over story. Guy lives to 55, dies, wakes up in his own body at age 14 with memories intact. Decides to change history by exercising and being outgoing instead of the fat nerd of his first life. (Sound familiar?) Both stories credit inspiration from Al Steiner’s DOING IT ALL OVER in which a divorced paramedic treats a dying magical Chinese Guy with respect – gets asked what his greatest wish is – replies “To be 15 again, knowing what I know now” – poof! He wakes up in his 15 year old body. (He was never a fat nerd. More of a stoner.)

    The last book interruption is Robert Lubrican’s THE DILDO THAT ERASED CLAIRE BONNEVILLE’S MEMORY. That isn’t Bob’s worst title nor his most salacious book (by a wide margin). Trust me, I’ve been reading his stuff since he used the nom de plume Beating Off Bob. Loads of his stuff is on Amazon.

    The rest of my interruptions are video in nature. More episodes of ELEMENTARY, some movies, lots of reels on YouTube.

  33. As you might guess from my tendency to write essays here on GBT, I have no complaints about the current format. 🙂

    1. ‘All Through the Night’ by Suzanne Brockmann, M/M romantic suspense set in her mostly F/M Troubleshooters series, featuring a recurring FBI agent and the actor he’s fallen for over several books, none of which I have read. This one stands alone quite nicely and is all about their wedding, but enlivened by episodes of mayhem, suspense, drama, & shenanigans. SB talked about this on the Big Gay Fiction Podcast and I really admired what she said about carefully salting the highly competent gay agent’s story through several preceding books, letting her F/M readership gradually get to know him (and get invested in him) as one of her straight male characters wrestles with his own bias and eventually becomes the agent’s very good friend. SB has a gay son and the proceeds from this book go to an equality organization. 5 stars on its own merits.

    2. ‘Look Up, Handsome’ by Jack Strange, M/M contemporary set in a Welsh town famous IRL for multiple bookshops and book festivals – should have been absolutely my jam. POV character is mopey, self-defeating, and passive; the love interest also did not impress.

    3. ‘The Substitute’ by Sean Ashcroft, M/M bi-awakening contemporary in which POV guy goes to Las Vegas for his gay brother’s wedding, but the brother has ditched; the fiance has an urgent reason to get married and POV guy is a chronic fixer so… he volunteers to be the other groom. As with most of Ashcroft’s books, I found the tropey setup completely forgivable because I liked the MCs so much and appreciated how they worked for their HEA.

    4. [re-read] my own novellas ‘Drawn Out’ (F/M feat. an animation artist and an interior designer/filmmaker) and ‘The Hunting Box’ (M/M/M Regency).

    4.5 ‘After the Storm’ by Nell Iris, angsty new M/M short story about two men reconciling 5 years after their daughter died in a car crash.

    5. ‘The Family We’re Born With’ (novella) and ‘The Family We Make’ (novel) by Kaje Harper, best read together, M/M and be ready for all the trauma. A solid 4 stars for me but srsly, all the shit happens to these people.

    5.5 ‘The Untamed Heart’ (Victorian M/M short story; re-read) and ‘A Love Unbroken’ (Victorian F/M short story; new) by Will Forrest. Both nice bedtime stories.

    6. ‘Creature’ by Kim Fielding, one of her Bureau stories (novella) inspired by Frankenstein; sad and ominous, builds to a brief action / suspense / violence climax that leads to a happy ending. 4 stars.

    7. ‘Chained’ by Kim Fielding, next in Bureau series (novella), this one features an agent going undercover to figure out if a skeevy Hollywood agent is really dealing souls to a devil (he is) and discovering the guy is also keeping shifter slaves, one of whom the Bureau agent falls for. Suspense, mayhem, mortal peril, happy ending. Rounded up to 5.

    8. ‘Nelson & Caleb’ by Kaje Harper, M/M novella in which a security guard and a building tenant ride out a hurricane together and do some sex. These two have complex back stories / issues and the format was too short for me, as we’ve barely gotten a sense of who, how and why before the story ends; HFN but with much work yet to be done.

      2. You should read her blog 20 part series dissecting project 2025. It’s incredibly useful if you don’t want to read the document’s 900 pages itself, brilliant in its deconstruction of what’s actually written, and flavoured with sprinkles of Chacha1 humour.

        1. I just finished her posts on Project 25, Tammy, & I completely agree.
          It’s good knowing what’s in there without having to read it myself.
          Bless Chacha1 for doing us that service.

      3. Thanks all!

        For the Americans among us, if there is one single thing every progressive should be doing right now as an individual, it’s contacting our legislators to say we demand the legislative and regulatory separation of church and state.

        James Carville had a good opinion post in the NYT about what progressives should be doing legislatively, specifically picking up the many pieces of business left unfinished by conservatives and proposing our own populist-minded, economy-minded solutions – because that will force the conservatives to either collaborate or expose themselves once again as useless obstructive fuckers.

  34. Suzanne Brockmann was the first MM romance I ever read even if it was a secondary plot. I was so intrigued and impressed that she included it.

    1. I was astonished when listening to SB on the podcast that I was reading LGBT+ stories since the early/mid 80s, watching films from that early on (yes, still very much in school) eg My Beautiful Laundrette, when so many of my now fav Northamerican authors only found such stories in the early 2000s. Nobody ever read Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown?
      In the early 80s, I even got a German edition of a Gordon Merrick book (too early for me back then for sure, I was faaar too young) in my local book store. And transtation of The Trapeze (an MM book) by the author of the Mist of Avalon book way available in trade paperback, too.

      MM wasn’t mainstream but the topic wasn’t that taboo.

      Is it a European city thing?
      Or a big city thing?
      A bit like getting vegetarian food elsewhere outside of the bigger cities (still not that easy)?

      1. I’m with you on films & TV, but confess I didn’t find m/m romances novels until much more recently. I wanted to try them, but it was probably recommendations here that got me going.

        1. It might also be a city thing, as you say – if I’d still been in London in the 90s, I’d’ve been haunting the big bookshops there. Though I didn’t see m/m romance when I went looking on my visits there. For me, it’s ebooks that opened things up.

          1. Patrick Gale was my intro to M/M stories. Beautifully written but felt quite daring at the time. Not sure when I read him, early 2000s?

  35. I binged Carola Dunn’s Cornish Mysteries. I love Eleanor, an older MC who practices Aikido for exercise. There are only four not very complicated mysteries, but enjoyable in a lovely setting. I wish she’d write more, but she is firmly retired.

    Now reading the “Cruising Through MidLife” series by Addison Moore. Light, breezy, in one eye and out the other, but just right for my current mood.

  37. I just finished Dangerously Fierce the 3rd & final book in Deborah Blake’s Baba Yaga / Broken Riders series. I love Alexei Knight & Bethany McKenna. Perfect for each other even though it takes them a while to figure out.

    And Bethany is a woman you want in f/m romances. Strong, kind, smart.

    This book is by the ocean so Alexei is joined by Baba Yaga Beka. There is a cracken & a pirate also.

    Sad to leave that world behind.

    I started Bob Mayer’s book – Life’s Little Blackbook – Hacks That Save Time, Money And Your Life which I got free on New Years day. I’m not far in but so far, so good.

    2. I’m so glad you liked the book! I always had a soft spot for Alexei, who has hidden depths. (Although they’re not very deep or well hidden.) I did follow up the three books with a short novella to wrap it all up, Dangerously Driven. Just in case you’re still pining for that world.

  38. My fav book this week was AO3’s Two Truths. Just finished. In between I almost rolled my eyes at the main mcs blindness to all the obvious evidence of the other MC’s feelings, but hey, he’s only 20 without much experience.
    Liked it A LOT. Will check out theindiagniseable’s other stories saved to my computer.

    Otherwise I got fed up with another book where the attraction between the 2 mcs was strong from the start and no real reason to not act on it. Flimsy. Boring.
    Apart from that the fam is binging on Ted Lasso. One season finished, the rest to watch within the next 4 days until our 7-days-test period for apple tv is up.

  39. So. In a book I’m reading, I ran across this line:

    They had decided to go garage saleing…

    My eyes crossed. I don’t have a problem with the author verbifying “sale,” I just wonder at the spelling. Should it be “saling?” Anybody?

    1. With that spelling, saleing is in the online OED but without a subscription that’s all I can see. There are discussions about it and the spelling elsewhere on the net, but I didn’t find anything authoritative.

    2. I think that’s a term which could well be on its way to becoming one of those many many portmanteau words, which might end up as “grajsailing” or some such thing. Since a “garage sale” is a thing unto itself, which many people understand in a general way, and not just a mistakenly combined word, like you might get if you were, say, hawking one of the seven available ‘garages’ on the ground level of an apartment building — a place to park your car? — it makes more sense as a combined concept.

      After all, many garage sale-type events might also be called a ‘sidewalk sale’ or a ‘driveway sale’ or a ‘yard sale’ if it covered the whole of a front yard, depending on how someone’s home area is laid out. English, at least, is full of those adventitious terminology words that take on a life of their own. It’s a kind of roughly descriptive term with multiple applications. Like “rooftop’ as an example. Or ‘alleyway’ — you borrow sort-of-descriptive terms and whomp them together so people will get the gist, rather than something definitive you’d find in your average dictionary or OED.

    3. I have switched to the multipurpose “Thrifting” as there seems to be no correct way to make going to yard sales a simple verb.

      Yard Sailing sounds fun and I like the image of myself as a pirate, scouring suburbia for treasure, but it would probably be confusing to some as a term in print.

      1. That works. My first thought was habitually shopping at thrift stores, but online definitions include other sources of used goods such as yard sales and garage sales. Overseas Anglophones might need a different word, since thrifting means something else in Britspeak (and thrift stores are “charity shops” in Britspeak and “op shops” in Oz [and NZ?]). But divergence of terms is a common enough phenomenon.

    4. I’ve never seen the word written out but it’s definitely the way my dad and grandad described their saturday mornings in the eighties (they would head out separately on bikes semi competitively) so it’s a word with a long standing pedrigree…

    5. Thanks all. So, no consensus on the spelling, but the concept is approved. I was never focused on the type/location of the sale, whether yard, garage, or sidewalk, but just on how to spell “saleing.” For my money, it should have been “saling,” or the author should have said, “They had decided to go to garage sales….”

      1. The argument against saleing is that it looks funny (but saling looks worse). The argument against sailing is that it’s etymologically wrong. Channel surfing or web surfing is an aquatic metaphor. Garage sailing is just a respelling of saleing using a word that looks less odd. If saleing catches on, it will seem normal, like busing for sending by bus versus bussing for kissing.

        1. Maybe so. And maybe the plural would have been both more accurate and less disturbing to the eye.

          They had decided to go garage salesing…

      2. We could get wild and crazy and add a hyphen. Yard Sale-ing. A bit of a visual mouthful, though.

        1. I belatedly had the same thought. We’ll have v e to await further developments from the general public, I suppose.

  40. I’m rereading my favorite in T. Kingfisher’s Paladin series, Paladin’s Strength. I love this series and her World of the White Rat so much. She hasn’t written a thing in that world that I haven’t enjoyed and reread at least once.

    I might reread Paladin’s 3 or skip straight to 4 which is my second favorite. Haven’t decided yet.

    1. Thanks for sharing Lupe. What sublime harmonies & stunning individual performances.
      ‘She is messy but she is kind …’ resonated so much as I had just been grumbling under my breath about someone who rarely puts things where they need to go but is enduringly kind.. The universe has its ways of reminding me of what is really important. I just need to listen more attentively.

  42. Jan,
    happy birthday to you!
    I hope you’ve got a great day with only lovely people around you and a heap of good books around you ❤️🧡💛

  43. I just finished “Cruel Winter with You” and I think Tammy is right that it’s a pretty clichéd story, possibly even one that will negatively affect Hazelwood’s reputation in a minor way. True, if our heroine knows nothing about the stock market, then our hero as a brilliant if underperforming teenager couldn’t tell trombones (which have a very distinctive slide, for heaven’s sake) from tubas. (A tuba is a rather feminist instrument for our heroine to play, incidentally. ) You could confuse tubas with sousaphones but not with much else. Even euphoniums or baritones would be a stretch. Anyway, evidently the story (or the Hazelwood name) checked enough genre-romance boxes for it to sell, but I don’t see much else to be said for it. I would contend that Hazelwood has done much better elsewhere, especially at novel length.

About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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